Fiber optic components are used in a wide variety of applications. The use of optical fibers as a medium for transmission of digital data (including voice, interne and IP video data) is becoming increasingly more common due to the high reliability and large bandwidth available with optical transmission systems. Fundamental to these systems are transceivers for transmitting and receiving optical signals.
There is a general need to simplify both the design and manufacture of transceiver. Specifically, there is a need for a multi-channel transceiver configuration that is readily manufactured with relatively few optical alignments, and that reduces the transceiver's footprint and power consumption. The present invention fulfills this need among others.